Like Mother, Like Daughter
by KitLee
Summary: A fic about Emily Gilmore and her scandal.


Like Mother Like Daughter  
by KitLee  
  
Disclaimer: All recognizable characters are not mine. They are from "Gilmore Girls." All other characters are mine and cannot be used without my permission.  
  
Author's Note: This story was written after the episode where Richard's mother comes to town. It's about when Emily was a girl.  
  
  
No one who saw Emily Gilmore could have possibly dreamed that she held a quiet secret, that in her day she'd been a scandal girl. It was (at least one of the reasons) why Richard's mother Lorelei hated her so much.  
  
Emily had met Richard while he was a senior at Yale, and she was almost a senior at Elsinger Academy. Her older brother Paul had been Richard's roommate, and so they'd met when seventeen-year-old Emily Whitman had gone to visit her brother.  
  
Emily and Richard immediately hit it off, but two things stood in their way. One was his family, and the other was her family. His family didn't like her because she was so young. Also, she and her brother had scholarships to their schools, otherwise their parents wouldn't have been able to afford them. The Whitmans weren't exactly poor, but they certainly weren't rich either. Her famiy, on the other hand, saw Emily, the youngest, as still a baby, too young to date a Yale student.  
  
So they had to keep their relationship a secret. She lived near Yale, so it was relatively easy for her to meet Richard places and go out on dates. They mostly went to nice places for dinner, and Emily found herself falling more and more in love with him. He was so kind and gentle to her. He treated her like a lady. And he fell in love with her too, for her beauty, wit and charm.  
  
One night, their date went too far. They started the evening out at a very nice place for dinner, but they wound up getting (mildly) drunk. They went into his dorm room at Yale and, finding her brother out, they - well, lets just say that they woke up together, naked in his bed.  
  
After that night of uninhibited passion, Emily avoided Richard as well as she could. It wasn't that hard - her grades were behind from spending all her time with him, finals were coming up, and she had to study. About a month later though, her period didn't come. It didn't come for the month after that, or the month after that. She began to panic. She noticed some other things too, like feeling tired all the time and snapping at people for no reason. When she began to gain some weight, with still no sign of her period, she realized that she was pregnant.  
  
Once school was out, Richard began courting her more openly. She was eighteen now, going to attend Smith in the fall. They went out to dinner and even to parties. And everywhere they went she was introduced as "Richard's girlfriend."  
  
But through the wonderful summer of dating Richard, loving him and being loved back, she kept her pregnancy a secret. It wasn't easy, but she did it. For one thing, she knew her parents would be furious. For another thing, she knew his parents would be furious. Most most importantly, she wasn't sure how he felt about her. If he didn't love her, she didn't want him forced into marriage by her pregnancy. She just kept hoping that this was a bad dream; she prayed every night to wake up and find herself not pregnant. But at the same time, she found herself becoming oddly attached to this little lump in her abdomen. She worried when it didn't move or didn't grow or didn't kick her. All in all it was a very confusing summer.  
  
But then everything decided itself for her. In August the Gilmore's held a party to celebrate the end of summer and Richard's start of work for his father. He took Emily as his date of course, and she thought that it was well worth the glares of his mother and the pains of the baby to spend the evening in his arms.  
  
"Emily," he asked her as they were dancing gracefully. "Are you all right?"  
  
"Hmm. Oh, I'm fine Richard. Why do you ask?"  
  
"You just look rather pale Emily. Are you sure you're fine?"  
  
She forced a smile in spite of feeling lightheaded and dizzy. "I'm fine Richard." She knew that if she complained of so much as a headache he would be calling for a doctor to examine her.  
  
"All right Emily," he said, looking doubtful.  
  
"So," she asked him, "are you excited to have graduated?"  
  
"Yes. Of course I will miss you terribly when you go off to Smith."  
  
The room began to spin, and Emily was afraid she might throw up. "That's sweet of you Richard. I'll miss you too. But I am looking forward to attending Smith."  
  
"I'm very proud of you for that," Richard said. "Emily, we've been seeing each other for a long time now, and I've grown very fond of you."  
  
She wished he would just let her dance in peace. It took too much energy to dance and talk at the same time. "I'm fond of you too Richard," she managed to say.  
  
"Good," he said rather nervously. "Then, Emily, would you - " But just then she fainted in his arms.  
  
*****  
  
An ambulance came and rushed her to the hospital. Richard came with her, and it was there that he'd learned the news.  
  
"Pregnant?" he asked, stunned. His mind floated to a wonderful night in his room, but that was months ago. Surely if Emily had gotten pregnant that long ago, she would have told him.  
  
"Yes sir. Would you like to see her? She should be waking up about now." Richard nodded, and the doctor led him to her room.  
  
In the hospital gown, he could see a small bulge in her stomach, and he wondered how he could not have noticed it. He sat patiently by her side until she began to stir.  
  
"Richard?" she asked groggily. "Where am I?"  
  
"You're at the hospital Emily. You fainted."  
  
"Oh," she said. Panicked, she suddenly asked, "What about - what about the um - "  
  
"The baby's fine Emily," he said gently, guessing at what she was wondering but too afraid to ask. She sighed in relief. "Why didn't you tell me about him?" Richard asked. He tried to keep his voice calm, but he was quite angry about it.  
  
"I was afraid of what you'd do," Emily whispered.  
  
"Emily," he said, taking her hand, "you don't have to be afraid. I'm asking you to marry me."  
  
She wanted to cry. He'd misunderstood her. She hadn't afraid that he wouldn't marry her; she'd been afraid that he would marry her without loving her. But instead she just said, "Of course I'll marry you Richard." 


End file.
